Several previously known filling apparatuses are used in the industrial production of sausages. The filling apparatuses are employed in conjunction with filling machines for producing strings of sausages, by which a pasty material like sausage meat or the like is produced and introduced into or put into a tubular case. The operation of introducing the pasty material into the tubular case can be performed continuously or in portion-wise fashion. An artificial casing or a natural skin casing can be used as the tubular case, also referred to as a gathered sausage skin casing. The term pasty material is used in the present case to denote a foodstuff material which is capable of flow and which can be transported by way of a tubular conduit by being subjected to a pressure. A dough material is also to be interpreted as the pasty material in the present case besides a meat or sausage material.
After the operation of introducing the material into the tubular case a case portion which has already been filled is closed for example by rotating the upstream-disposed filling tube. In that case the filling tube with the gathered tubular cases disposed thereon is in contact with a casing braking unit which cooperate with each other in such a way that the filling tube and the case pulled onto the filling tube jointly perform a rotary movement and a twist-off location can be generated. In addition, the case braking unit holds the case tight in the filling operation. After a tubular case which has been drawn on to the filling tube has been completely filled, a change in case is necessary in which a fresh case is drawn on to the filling tube.
The filling tube and the casing braking unit are to be separated from each other for pulling on a fresh case. For that purpose, the casing braking unit can firstly be moved in the axial direction relative to the filling tube by way of a manually actuatable adjusting device, and then pivoted laterally. The front end of the filling tube is accessible in that way so that a fresh tubular case can be drawn on to the filling tube. For bringing the casing braking unit into contact with the freshly fitted filling tube the casing braking unit is firstly to be pivoted laterally by way of the adjusting device in the opposite sequence, and then moved in the longitudinal direction of the filling tube.
For implementing the successive movement steps which are necessarily to be carried out by the casing braking unit when changing the case, the casing braking unit is mounted to the known filling apparatuses by way of an adjusting device involving a structurally complicated operating principle.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for filling tubular cases of the above-indicated kind, in which the operation of equipping a filling tube with a fresh tubular case is reliably possible with a structural configuration which is simplified at the same time.